We all have those songs that get stuck in our heads that we just cannot seem to release ourselves from the stranglehold of. In the same respect, we tend to have songs that get thrown into a category known simply as our “guilty pleasures”. Just in time for St. Valentine’s Day is a song that fits both criteria by the magnificent Jenny Owen Youngs with the song “Your Apartment” off her recently released An Unwavering Band of Light.
So why is this song worthy of being put into your mixtape for your significant other? First, because it is about the catchiest song to come out this year so far. And secondly, because it nearly perfectly encapsulates the feelings we all have when we are finding the delicate balance in a relationship where we aren’t sure exactly how the other person feels about us and we know full well of the feelings we have toward them. I mean, with the lyrics “why is it so hard to stay in love?/I just want to be good enough for you” it’s easy to find ourselves in that exact situation, left with the feeling that somehow this other person is going to complete us. And how about this doozy of an opening verse:
Take me back to your apartment so I’ll see if I’m correct About where you keep your heart, love, cause I’m starting to suspect That it’s chained up in your basement inside an oaken chest That’s padlocked up to heaven to keep out what comes next
There is such a pleading in Youngs’ lyrics that the listener is left desiring the same thing she is if they don’t already have that relationship in their life. It’s an aching, really, putting your heart on the line just hoping the other person responds in kind. On this Valentine’s Day, I hope each of you finds that love to be of the requited variety. It’s a special day for many and a nauseating one for others, but all in all it’s an excellent reminder to love the people in our lives deeply. “Your Apartment” is no exception as it celebrates that yearning for another so very eloquently.
Jenny Owen Youngs plays in Nashville at The Rutledge on Monday, March 12. If you want to see a woman put on one heck of a rock show, I recommend being there with bells on.
This past week has been a busy one with an ongoing job search and working on setting up house shows for the spring, so it was a natural time for writer’s block to set in in a major way. I had ideas of what I wanted to write and I hit a brick wall with every turn of a phrase. There are plenty of artists I want to talk about and let you all know of, but nothing was clicking.
Then nights like tonight happen, and the muse comes from the most unlikely of places for someone who professes to champion artists that are flying just a little below the radar, that have nothing to do with what is mainstream at the moment. And that “muse” came in the form of a friend of mine, Phillip “Pip” Arnold on the hit NBC show, “The Voice.”
Now I’m not a huge fan of singing competitions on network television and I usually just tune into shows like American Idol to see the early rounds for the cheap laughs and entertainment, but when I heard Pip was going to be on The Voice, I was hooked, DVR set and everything. And boy, oh boy, did he not disappoint on tonight’s episode.
Taking a step back and getting to the crux of why I’m writing this in the first place, let me give you a little history of our connection. About a year after graduating from Samford University, I moved back to Birmingham to take a job as an admission counselor for the greater Atlanta area. Somewhere along the line, I met Phillip and his wonderful parents, Jim and Chris, during his junior year. Going into my second year of recruiting, the Arnold family asked me to stay with them while recruiting in Atlanta, as they had heard I typically decided against staying in hotels and preferred spending more time with families in the area. Immersion recruiting I think a mentor of mine called it. Who knows, but it was really just an opportunity to pour my life into these Atlanta people’s lives. During the week or two I lived with the Arnolds, I had the unfortunate illness known as the “swine flu” and was rushed to the doctor by none other than Mrs. Arnold. It was an adventure to say the least, and I was glad to be staying with folks that took great care of me.
Long story short, Pip grew up in a musically inclined family, with a dad who was a radio DJ for many years and who had quite the collection of music in their basement. Pip had a gift for singing and for entertaining, that much was evident in YouTube videos (see below) that his mom would show me as any proud mother would do. But it was different when she showed me those videos: she knew there was something special about his talents.
When it came time to make a decision on college, it was evaluating a practical path that lead to a high income (pharmacy) or following a passion for music. Daily I heard about the struggle to make a decision of which path to follow when I talked to them over the phone, with Pip eventually deciding to pursue pharmacy, but you could always tell there was something about music that he couldn’t quite let go of. Obviously it turned out that Pip followed his passion and his dreams and chose music over pharmacy, and that is the reason for this whole post: I want YOU to pursue your passions in life. We NEED people to pursue their passions in life and stop doing just what seems practical or likely to help them land a decent paying job.
It was an absolute joy to watch Pip on The Voice tonight, and see him live out his passion on stage and see his dreams fulfilled as ALL FOUR judges turned their chairs around hoping that he would choose them to work with. I mean, seriously, can you imagine being in a situation any better than having four stars of that caliber battling for the right to groom you into an artist? Wow!
I say all this not to make light of “practical” professions, because we absolutely need people who are passionate about their jobs in those industries, but to encourage you all to aim high in what you hope to accomplish and pursue your dreams with as much tenacity and strength that you can muster, because I guarantee you it will be worth it and that the journey that you go on will grow you immensely. As I write this I’m reminded of John Eldredge’s quote that says “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive because what the world needs are [people] who have come alive.”
So Pip, thank you for reminding me and reminding so many others, that there are things in each of us, purposes and passions, just waiting to come alive that will allow us to change the world. Hope you win the whole dang competition!
There are concerts that will forever be imprinted on my memory, that as I remember them, I feel like I am right back in the midst of the euphoria. Ben Harper at the Ryman in 2005: 3 sets, 33 songs and 4 hours of pure bliss. Driving through a snowstorm to see Iron & Wine at Denver’s Paramount Theatre in 2007. I thought I was going to die that night on those roads, but I would have died happy. Mumford & Sons bringing their big tent revival-esque show to Nashville’s War Memorial in 2010. Yes, I had beer spilled all over me that night. Yes, I was thrown up on. Yes, I even ended up in the ER that night from an injury suffered in an intramural football game earlier in the evening. YES, it was still quite possibly the greatest concert I have ever been to.
Then nights like the one this past fall happen, a night that will forever be cemented in my own unofficial “Shows Hall of Fame”, when one of my favorite bands (and one of the most talented I might add) Seryn graced the makeshift stage of my house’s living room floor and left each of those in attendance mesmerized and awestruck at the sheer power and weight of their live performance. Now for anyone who has seen the talented Denton, Texas, five-piece play at a proper venue can attest to, they play a brand of folk rock that sometimes can get cranked up to eleven (insert Spinal Tap jokes here, please). It is truly a sight to see. But even more impressive, on that late October night was the way in which each of the band’s members handled their art with such delicateness throughout an unplugged acoustic set. There is always a sense of bringing order out of the chaos with Seryn’s songs, at one moment launching listeners into a post-rock ether only to bring them back again to a soothing sereneness when the music drifts into the background and the only instruments left are the wondrous harmonies of the voices.
My comment that night to a crowd of a little over 70 that had gathered in the living room and spilled to all corners of the house was that it was like “Christmas, my birthday, and every other holiday thrown in together”, and in so many ways it felt like a grand celebration worthy of its own official holiday. It was both a culmination and a nascent beginning of thoughts and dreams that had been floating around for years as my love for music grew and evolved. Cause A Scene didn’t exist at that point, but the seeds that had been planted during years of musical discovery germinated rapidly from that point forward. There were moments during the course of the evening where I was nearly moved to tears, both through Seryn’s propulsive songs and the incredible intricacy of opener Tony Brown and the Lion’s Den (talk about being pleasantly surprised in a HUGE way!). That night, in a form true to Seryn’s standout “We Will All Be Changed”, we were forever changed through the awakened belief that music can not only entertain or inspire, but can transform each of us.
The entire evening was filmed and recorded by the fantastic Ryan Silver:
It was also photographed by my wonderfully talented roommate, Barrett Santi. You can see many more of the photos from the evening here.
Much is made these days of the ‘immediacy’ of an artist. Perhaps it’s the raw power of their voice. Maybe it’s the way their lyrics make you feel like you’re peering into their soul. Sometimes it’s the interplay between the various instruments that take repeat listens to unravel each nook and cranny of their sound. Rare is the artist who is able to bring all of these variables together and snatch your attention away from whatever you were working on at the moment.
Seattle, Washington’s Noah Gundersen is just that artist. His music surprises with each track on his most recent release, the ‘Family’ EP, moving seamlessly between a visceral earnestness as evidenced in the hard-charging “Fire” to an open letter to “the ones we love” on the ballad “Garden”. Where Gundersen really stands out is on the angst-ridden opening track of “David”, where he seems to plead for something more with the lyrics “I wanna hunt like David/I wanna kill me a giant man/I wanna slay my demons/But I’ve got lots of them, I’ve got lots of them.” The hauntingly beautiful track moves along at a locomotive’s pace, forcing the listener to find their inner David to go and slay the Goliaths of the world.
As you might imagine, Biblical imagery abound throughout the seven tracks of the EP. Gundersen takes you on a journey that reaches a fitting conclusion along the way that “heaven is where we make it.” And with sister Abby in tow throughout the album on violin and providing vocal harmonies, Noah’s description of the music being about how family “lives with us, for better or worse” seems to err on the side of this pairing being very much for the better.
Noah and Abby will be joining the fantastic William Fitzsimmons on the Southeast and Southwest legs of his tour, making a stop in Nashville’s very own 3rd and Lindsley on Tuesday, February 28. I’ll be there, and I highly recommend you attend as well. In the meantime check out the lead track, “David” below.
Here in Nashville (and across much of the country) we’ve had a bit of a climatic confusion this week, where temperatures in late January and early February have felt like Punxsutawney Phil came out a few days early and missed his shadow completely. I mean, can it possibly be spring this early on? Please Lord, let it be so. Ushering in this uptick in the weather, is an artist whose voice sounds like the warm thaw of winter making way for spring, one Michael Kiwanuka. His voice is about as memorable as his name, and once you’ve heard him channel Bill Withers over the course of his 3 EPs, you would swear the clouds outside have made way for the sun and the trees are ready to bloom. Maybe that’s a bit hyperbolic, but Kiwanuka comes closer to the sound of Gaye, Redding, Morrison and the like than any other artist I’ve seen. And as another blogger recently said, Kiwanuka’s voice just sounds like “home.”
His story is one that is sure to attract a lot of buzz as the son of Ugandan parents who escaped the Idi Amin regime and relocated to London. He’s now signed to Ben Lovett of Mumford fame’s Communion Records (which, by the way, may be one of the best labels out there right now) and has been prominently featured on Later With Jools Holland and BBC Radio overseas. On the heels of winning BBC’s Sound of 2012 award, he’s sold out every single show on his February tour in the UK and is poised to break through in a major way on our shores with an appearance at SXSW 2012 (there seems to be a recurring theme here with all these artists – someone get me to Austin in March!!). His debut album, “Home Again” gets released in March, perfectly suited to coincide with all the colors of spring and warmer temperatures that the month will bring.
I was recently asked to recommend music for a friend’s father/daughter dance at her wedding, and without hesitation my recommendation was a song by Kiwanuka. In my mind, his songs deserved to be played during the course of important moments in our lives, where you just have to have a soundtrack to your memories. Check out these videos of him performing below and tell me if you don’t agree.
